MP blasts Christmas Island space base inactivity

Three years ago, the Howard Government boasted that a plan to spend $100 million to build a spaceport at Christmas Island would deliver a return of $1.3 billion and signal Australia's re-entry into the space industry.

Three years on, the chance of a rocket launch getting off the ground is slim and the project is being described by Labor's industry and science spokesman Kim Carr as a "space scam" that better reflected 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Senator Carr accused the Government of being "blinded by the glamour of space" and mismanaging the project being run by the Asia Pacific Space Centre.

The company's chief, David Kwan, a former bathroom tiler who became a millionaire, wants to use Russian rockets to send commercial satellites into orbit.

Senator Carr said serious questions about why there was no schedule of works in the contract to measure progress and why it had locked taxpayers into the project until 2005 irrespective of progress remained unanswered by the Government.

Finance Minister Nick Minchin, who championed the project in 2001, accused Senator Carr of a "grubby" attempt to cast a slur on Mr Kwan.

He said virtually no taxpayers' money had been spent on the project, although almost $69 million was set aside to improve infrastructure on Christmas Island and $31 million for spaceport infrastructure.

Senator Minchin said the Government was not embarrassed because it was a difficult industry. "When we were approached about this project we saw the enormous potential benefit of it," he said.